Entries in 3d
(3)

It's that time of year again, the holidays, when I seem to forget about making a card until the last minute. Last year's card (which I will need to dig up) was an homage to Richard Scarry, since he is beloved in my family, but I do like to mix it up with a 3d card every other year if possible, and I think I have an idea that fits the bill. Usually, when I throw humor into the card on the holiday card, it misfires, like when I had a cannibalistic gingerbread man interpreted to be expecting a family addition...I started a model a little while ago, and then projects came up that shuffled it to the back of the deck; but I dusted this one off in Modo to help announce the new year.

The last few months I have been focusing more on 'traditional' 2d design and UX, but recenty a project has necessitated building components in 3d for event design, which has been a challenge due to the time constraints, but it's also allowed me to stretch my 3d capabilities. I had only been dabbling in Modo previously, but now, I have been using it for direct production, and it' been a blast! The render below is the first draft of concepts on the booth design to the client.

As with any 3d application, scratching the surface and occasionally using the program doesn't teach you much about the strength of the tool, the flexibility, or the shortcuts and how to get around. Initially, I had a bit of a hard time with the way that Modo treats objects and textures, as it is very different from Maya, which I had been using as my primary 3d application for several years. To bridge the gap, I started modeling in Silo, and began to transition into the Modo modeling and UV tools. Scene layout is a bit more straightforward than Maya, and I am starting to enjoy the navigation of the windows, though I have been using 901 rather than the newer 10 due to my designs being done of MacBookPros; I have not heard good things about the render times on a Mac with Modo 10.

The client need for the visualization has necessitated fast edits and many renders. As much as I am enjoying Modo, on a MacBook Pro the renders were just taking too long to keep production on assets humming. Right now, I don't have the luxury of a second machine for rendering, so I needed a render pipeline that would allow me to post continuous changes. Which is when I remembered that my Unity license was getting a little rusty...and porting all of my Modo assets to Unity took a lot less time than I thought tha it would.

Once the scene came through, I could continue setting up and verifying my objects and textures through Modo, then throw them over the wall to Unity to be able to show changes nearly immediately.

Though the rest of the world is going crazy over whatever Apple may be saying on the keynote tonight, I am knee-deep in learning a new piece of 3d software, Modo. I was really on the fence when the Foundry purchased Modo, as I felt like 3d software keeps getting gobbled up by huge companies, but I was pretty impressed with what I had seen out of Modo, and the 801 updates looked very strong...especially in modeling and rendering. It's been a few years since I learned a new 3d package, and it was time- I find it to be a great way to evaluate your own status quo in terms of working methods, and to see whether you can make your life a little easier. Modo feels uncannily familiar, enough like Maya that I can navigate around, but a bit easier to get up and running. It seems like 3d beginners will have a much easier time with Modo.